Hurricane Milton bearing down on Central Florida
USA TODAY reports that Milton closes in on Florida as a larger Category 3 hurricane. The National Weather Service warned residents to shelter-in-place as conditions deteriorated dramatically Wednesday afternoon while Hurricane Milton roared toward Florida's beleaguered west coast.
Tropical-storm force winds, flooding rains and tornadoes were spreading inland as the fierce hurricane was just hours from making landfall. Milton's sustained winds have tapered off from 145 mph to 120 mph ? bringing it down to a Category 3 hurricane ? but the storm has grown in size, making its potential damage more widespread.
Industrial Info Resources News reports that Industries across Florida brace for Hurricane Milton’s wrath.
Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour, was barreling toward the central Florida peninsula Tuesday, with its pathway gradually widening to engulf a larger swath of the Sunshine State, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Industrial Info is tracking progress at more than 980 operational plants in the area to be affected by Milton most severely, the bulk of which are in the Power, Industrial Manufacturing and Food & Beverage industries.
Industrial Info also is tracking 78 plants in the area that are planned, engineered or under construction.Between 10 to 20 feet of storm surge is expected to hit the Tampa area. Milton is believed to be the strongest hurricane in the Gulf since Rita in 2005, the fifth-strongest Atlantic hurricane based on pressure, and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane based on its peak winds, according to the NHC.
Individual counties have the authority to call for evacuations, but Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said he's preparing for the largest evacuation since 2017's Hurricane Irma.
Governor Ron DeSantis warned residents Tuesday "time is running out" to evacuate. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor was quite blunt on CNN Monday night: "I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those [mandatory] evacuation areas, you're going to die."
Milton follows Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida on September 26 and killed more than 230 people in its path, which also included Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Port, Rail Facilities on High Alert
As of Tuesday morning, Port Tampa Bay had halted inbound and outbound vessel traffic, as well as shipping channels.
The port said the U.S. Coast Guard had set "Port Condition Zulu," which indicates gale-force winds could affect its maritime operations within 12 hours.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Plant Database can learn more about Port Tampa Bay in a detailed plant profile .
"We will work with our fuel terminal operators and partners to ensure gas and other fuels move out of our port and to consumers as long as possible," the Port said on its website.
The port indicated its landside operations will continue as long as safety allowed.
"Additionally, port staff will continue to work round-the-clock so we can re-open to full operations as soon as safely possible to support the community and region we serve."
Other major transportation providers include railroad companies CSX (NYSE:CSX ) (Jacksonville, Florida) and Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC ) (Atlanta, Georgia), which are monitoring the situation closely as they pause recovery operations in the area from Helene.
"It is strongly recommended that customers make every attempt to timely outgate shipments from the Jacksonville Intermodal Facility in advance of the storm," Norfolk Southern said in a statement Monday; "outgate" refers to the process of checking a container or trailer out of an intermodal facility.
CSX released a similar statement: "Intermodal customers are encouraged to promptly pick up units network-wide that show as "notified" in our ShipCSX portal."
Subscribers can click here for a list of plant profiles for Norfolk Southern and CSX facilities in central Florida.
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Fertilizer, Other Sectors Brace for Impact
Central Florida is a significant area for fertilizer production and phosphate rock mining, and Milton could cause fertilizer prices to skyrocket.
Joshua Linville , the vice president of fertilizer for StoneX Group Inc. , warned on his X (formerly Twitter) account Monday that the market might not be prepared for Milton:
"Supplies could be hurt, and demand is rising three to four weeks before the start of application."
Industrial Info's GMI Plant Database includes information on 11 fertilizer facilities and five phosphate mining operations in Florida. Subscribers can click here for a list of fertilizer plant profiles and click here for a list of phosphate-mine profiles.
One of the largest companies in the sector, The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS ), is headquartered in Tampa and has more than $1 billion worth of active or planned projects across central Florida, including the proposed Desoto Phosphate Mine in Arcadia.
Mosaic believes the 6 million-ton-per-year mine could bolster the area's phosphate-mining market, which it says is nearing depletion. It is not yet known how this and other projects in the sector will be affected by Milton.
Subscribers can learn more from a detailed project report .
Power Industry Prepares for the Worst
The areas most likely to be affected by Milton include more than 120 operational power-generation facilities with more than $6.6 billion worth of active and proposed power-generation projects, according to Industrial Info's GMI Power Plant and Project databases.
These include Seminole Electric Cooperative Incorporated 's (Tampa, Florida) $727 million natural gas-fired, combined-cycle plant in Shady Hills, which is about 30 miles north of Tampa. The 537-megawatt (MW) project began construction last October.
Seminole Electric also runs the 854-MW, gas-fired Richard J. Midulla Generating Station in Bowling Green, which is about 50 miles southeast of Tampa; the cooperative says it is preparing and taking all necessary precautions.
Subscribers can learn more from a detailed project report and a plant profile for Shady Hills, and a plant profile for Midulla.
Front-month U.S. natural gas futures have dropped almost 10% since the start of the week, as markets anticipate a disruption to power plants that could send prices tumbling, according to Business Insider . The market activity points to a sharp drop in demand that could come from idled power plants.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Plant and Project databases can click here for a full list of detailed profiles for plants in the area to be affected by Milton most severely, and click here for a full list of profiles for plants in the area that are planned, engineered or under construction.
IIR Energy is closely falling all things Energy for these Tropical Disturbances to learn more please contact the following:
Email: [email protected]
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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
Seer/Sage/Shepherd
1 个月CNN reports that on A thousand-year flood: Milton has dropped more than 9 inches of rain in a three-hour span over the Tampa Bay area, representing a more than a 1-in-1000 year rainfall for St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, there are “multiple fatalities” in St. Lucie County, Florida, from a tornado outbreak earlier in the day, CNN affiliate WPTV reports. Devastating effects: Milton, the third hurricane to hit Florida this year, has knocked out power for more than 1.1 million people in the state. Additionally, wind gusts of 100 mph were recorded near Tampa, where a flash flood emergency was issued. https://www.cnn.com/weather/live-news/hurricane-milton-florida-10-09-24/index.html
Seer/Sage/Shepherd
1 个月The Wall Street Journal reports that Milton hit near Siesta Key, Fla., in Sarasota County around 8:30 p.m. E.T. as a Category 3 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said.?Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 120 mph. Before making landfall, Milton hammered Florida with several inches of rain, heavy winds, storm surge and tornadoes. National Weather Service on Wednesday issued Florida a record umber of tornado warnings, which indicate a twister has been spotted or detected by radar. The storm is likely to exacerbate the devastation wrought by Helene, which tore a path of death and destruction across several states in late September.? Millions were urged to evacuate ahead of the storm. Some faced traffic jams and found gas stations out of fuel when they tried to flee. By Wednesday night, officials were urging residents to shelter-in-place. “The storm is here,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “It’s time for everybody to hunker down.”???? Tampa Bay was spared a direct hit, allaying some fears of catastrophic damage to coastal communities there. https://apple.news/AyVcUETuZQhqiiPwIM__Nkg